GOOGLIES & CHINAMEN
An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 135
March 2014
It’s time to talk about Kevin
The Professor goes first
We haven't (of late) talked much about Kevin; so I thought I might offer some thoughts. Since his first selection for England, Pietersen has, as they say, split opinions. I think there might be three opinions: Those who simply don't like him. Those who pragmatically think he should be in the team, like him or not, because he is so good,..and those who just think he should be in the team.
I am always bemused by people who say of some celebrity or politician that they "don't like them" having not, of course, met them and thus have formed an impression of someone via the TV which they would recognise as illegitimate in many other circumstances. The prejudice is inevitably dressed up with "objective" criteria (prejudiced...moi?) such as that KP is: "foreign", "arrogant", "brash", and so on...all attributes that should be more than sufficient to ban anyone from the national side. For these folk Pietersen's failures are jumped on and his successes ignored...'twas ever thus.
The second group are KP fans as long as he is doing well. Any failure brings the prejudices to the fore: he is not really a team man; gets out when the team needed him to stay in; is only after money (unlike so many in our society); is arrogant and, of course, foreign.
I'm in the last group. I have seen Pietersen bat for England in many parts of the world and what I have seen has, at times, been breathtaking. He is qualified to play for England and makes the side...so what is the problem?
The problem is that he is KP: brash, arrogant, selfish, etc. He may be all of these things, although personally I think the "arrogant" tag is a complete misreading - truly self-confident people do not need the approval of others - but these are problems for the numerous management staff to address and overcome. What else are they for? Doubtless he can be extremely difficult and many sports "stars" have been in the past. So? Deal with it...that's your job. Many people introduce the club cricket analogy at this stage - a happy dressing room, all behind the skipper, etc. Of course those things are important, but the object of the exercise is to win cricket matches not to have a happy team - many successful sides have contained people who didn't get on. People often don't...is this news?
There is, however, one trait which I think is essential to a team game, and that is loyalty. It is almost tautological to say that if you are playing for one team you cannot be aiding the opposition. For that reason alone, Pietersen should have been sacked during the South African series...permanently.
But, unsurprisingly, the ECB vacillated...and now we have this latest (last?) farcical chapter. The members of the above groups will now feel vindicated: "'e was foreign and a big 'ead" or bemused: he is sacked not dropped, so cricket isn't the issue here, so...? So what is? And should he have been? Well we don't of course have anything like the full story to be able to make a judgement (apart from the pre-judgers of course: "'e was flash, poncy...and foreign"). But I think there is something interesting going on here which cricket (that is international cricket, especially in England) has to grasp ...and that is the role of the coach.
For roughly three centuries the person in charge of a cricket team has been the captain. He (in general) chooses who plays, where they bat, when they bowl, and so on. Many sides have had coaches but these folk helped with your off-drive or your run-up. We now have, in effect, a change of governance at the highest level and there is an (unwitting) struggle going on to delineate the role of captain and coach (as exemplified, in part, by the uncertainty even of the title: coach, manager, director, etc). There is no such difficulty in other sports. The coach, whatever the title, is in charge and it is they who get the sack if things go wrong. No one would suggest that if England have a bad World Cup, Gerrard (or whoever happens to be captain at the time) should have his contract terminated: he may well not even be dropped. It will be the coach's "fault". Ditto rugby, baseball, American football, and on and on. Now I don't need to be told that cricket is "different" (if it weren't, there would be no point in the discussion): it takes five days, involves thousands of on-field decisions, is more cerebral than almost any sport and thus requires someone to do the (often split-second) thinking, and so on.
But the coaches (in the modern sense) are, I think, here to stay. If cricket adapts to the model of other sports it will be the coaches who do the selecting, decide the batting order and who generally play a much more intrusive role than they do at present (which already may be too intrusive for some). That means that when the team loses, it is his responsibility and his job on the line.
I think cricket has in part gone that way and more so in other parts of the world, but I think in England some are going to struggle with the implications.
It means, of course, that Pietersen should not have been sacked at this time. The decision removes the option for the incoming coach of selecting his best player (or not if that is what he might choose). Of course it may be that the new coach has been informally appointed and that he, Giles, was party to the decision. If not, it is a bizarre time to act. The announcement of the sacking and the drip-feed news management by innuendo is, of course, par for the ECB course.
The Great Jack Morgan sent me this
I became a fan of K Pietersen much earlier than most when he demolished the Middlesex attack at Lord's before anyone had heard of him. In May 2001, KP hit his maiden first class century, 165* off 218 balls with 22 fours and 2 sixes and in the second innings 65* off 47 balls with 4 fours and 4 sixes; he also held 3 catches and took the wicket of AJ Strauss for second innings figures of 12-7-13-1. Partly as a result of this, I have fully supported him in his England career and have tended to brush aside questions about his loyalty and his disruptive tendencies (why would he be disloyal and disruptive when he is constructing such a successful England career?), but over the years he has fallen out with the likes of Natal, Jason Gallian, Notts, Peter Moores, Hants, Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower and it does not sound like Cooky and Gilo defended him very strongly either. I have therefore come to the conclusion that Downton is correct and that the time is right for KP to pursue his own plans and let England get on without his influence. They will miss his runs, but perhaps not much else. It must be a comfort for him that he is getting support from Piers Morgan (no relation).
I noted
Whilst team spirit is highly desirable in any team game I am increasingly wondering how big a priority it can have in professional sport. When career and lucrative livelihood depend on personal performance how motivated is the professional to do things in the team's good as a priority? It may be easier with central contracts but ultimately they will be judged on individual performance. Therefore, the professional player has to be somewhat selfish. I suppose that Sir Geoffrey is the ultimate example but apart from the famous dropping after he scored a slow double century against India he was tolerated because he was good enough.
I find myself surprisingly sympathetic to the KP cause although it may be that his behaviour falls outside the team spirit arena. It will seem ridiculous in hindsight that he is not playing international cricket. Perhaps he should change countries? Why doesn't he fast track becoming Irish or Zimbabwaen? He would certainly get a mouthful back if he started spouting off in the Irish dressing room.
His new Surrey role seems to be based on Friday night Bashes. When did he last play a T20? Are we sure he won't have more pressing commitments on a Friday night?
And the final word came from Charlie Puckett
At about the same time the ECB made their long-overdue announcement on February 4th, I am sure I heard the sound of ghostly laughter: the only question is whether the noise came from over my head or under my feet!
Matters of the Hart
Steve Thompson further clarifies the dilemma posed by Bill Hart
What a good thing it was that in delving into the South Hampstead 2nd XI score sheets from 1974 Bill Hart unearthed a 'mystery' spinner. Ironically many of the 'brave phalanx' referred to in Bill's February contribution may be more familiar with A. Williams than the South Hampstead segment from whom further information was sought.
There were of course three left armers of note in the South Hampstead first team in 1974; Cox, Hardie and Thompson. Inexplicably the latter was rarely called upon possibly because in off-spinner Steve Hatherall there was a different option - or maybe he was just a million times better? That the side went on to win both the Middlesex League and Cup that season was largely down to its ability to take ten wickets and, depending on the surface, Cox, Hardie or Hatherall, separately or jointly had all that was necessary to finish off most opposition batting.
What then of poor old A. Williams toiling away with the stiffs? Tony and I discussed Bill's research earlier this week and concluded that first team success, and the spinners' performances to that end, rendered his elevation most unlikely. He couldn't recall being overly aware of being so close to taking a hundred wickets but I suspect even if he had taken two hundred he would have remained in the seconds. So, for Bill's sake, and for the record, what did happen to A.(more properly G.A.) Williams and why, after such a successful season did he not play for the club in 1975? Was it the arrival of left arm spinner, New Zealander Cliff Dickeson who would later break all wicket-taking records for Northern Districts that finally meant A. Williams saw no future for another left armer at South Hampstead?
No. The following two years saw Tony working in South Africa and when he returned he began his career at Brentham. In 275 League matches he took 515 wickets; just Brian Reid with 542 has taken more. This is all the more impressive when one considers he played half these matches at home on a generally slow, low wicket not renowned for being spinner-friendly. We also thought that along with Brian and Peter Ray he was one of only three bowlers to take more than 500 League wickets. No doubt one of the phalanx can confirm or deny this fact. Had he not played the last few years of his career at Dunstable, Tony would doubtless have eclipsed Brian's aggregate. For good measure, at the age of 40, he took 7 for 43 from 17 overs for the League Representative XI against Mike Gatting's 1987 Middlesex side.
Tony therefore only played that one full League season at Milverton Road. It was a brief glimpse into the future but unfortunately for South Hampstead not one they would share. Fair to say though that between 1974 and 1976 in Cox, Hardie, Dickeson and the mysterious A. Williams the club fielded four of the very best left-arm spinners to have played in the Middlesex League.
Steve Wright added
Good old Bill! I am sure I write on behalf of all Googlies readers when I say how pleased I was to read that Bill Hart has found such a fulfilling way to occupy his declining years. Carrying out such a forensically demanding exercise as the analysis of the South Hampstead 2nd X1 scorebook for 1974 will prove to be the highlight of his life and one that I am sure will be recognised in the next Honours List.
The unfortunate Mr A Williams who Bill has already established was a star in that famous side but who never made the first eleven reminds me of when Adam Gilchrist came over as a young man and played for Richmond. Despite some stellar performances the second eleven captain managed to keep Gilchrist in his side for several weeks claiming that he needed "another week" to acclimatise to English conditions. There is of course no truth in the rumour that has been circulating that Bill Hart whose career was, in 1974 in terminal decline managed to keep poor Williams from swapping sides with him because he was on the selection committee.
Really irritating trends in modern cricket
Not for the first time Douglas Miller disagreed with me
May I offer No 2 in the series ‘Really Irritating Trends in Modern Cricket’? It is old codgers preferring to see wrong umpiring decisions going uncorrected when there is the technology to put matters right. Is there a sadder sight, our Googlies editor asks, than an umpire having to reverse a decision that he has made following a successful referral? Yes, there is. It is the sight of a batsman dismissed when he should not have been given out. Or a bowler wrongfully denied a wicket. Why? For one thing the game is about the players, not the umpires. Moreover, ask an ICC Elite panel umpire and the odds are that he will say how glad he is to have the chance for mistakes he may have made to be corrected.
Frank Chester, of course, famously claimed never to have had any doubts. He was clearly a product of his age, ridiculously self-deluding. Then we had Dickie Bird, like so many umpires of his and earlier generations, making it to the top on a reputation as an unfailing not outer.
Anyone who umpires on a regular basis, and I do, will know that he makes mistakes. Some he will know he has made (from on-field reaction, not necessarily dissent), some he may remain blissfully unaware of, while with others he will be left wondering. It has always been so, and at club level thus it remains. But when it comes to the world’s top umpires, who are mostly very good, we are looking at well-paid people at the peak of their trade. It is right that we should be monitoring them to ensure that they remain the best; there are plenty of other aspirants in the wings. Now, armed with modern technology, we have the means of checking out their decision-making. So what is so appalling about showing how well top umpires have performed? After all plenty of other people in other walks of life, not least international cricketers, have their performances publicly evaluated.
Giving players the right to appeal against umpires’ decisions is an essential part of the process, and it is a price worth paying to ensure that those decisions are not allowed to have an unfair impact on the outcome of a match. Harking back to the practices of an age when the game that had no recourse to Hawkeye etc. serves no useful purpose.
Middlesex Matters
The Great Jack Morgan shares another report from his archive
Middlesex were approaching the end of a dismal season when Shaun Udal won the toss and chose to bat in the Second Division Championship match against Gloucestershire at Lord's on August 27 2009. Sam Robson and Nick Compton got the lads off to a good start with an opening stand of 46, then Adam London, on his first class debut, joined Robson (both of them aged 20) in an even better partnership of 96 for the second wicket before Robson fell for an excellent 83 off 171 balls with 11 fours. Dawid Malan (38) then partnered London in another good stand of 84 for the third wicket, but London departed for a very solid 68 off 173 balls with 8 fours and a six and suddenly 226 for 2 became 263 for 6.
Neil Dexter was batting well, however and when he was joined by his captain Udal, a pleasant stand of 58 for the seventh wicket ensued. Dexter departed for 51 off 79 balls with 11 fours and when Udal followed for an entertaining 45 off 55 balls with 9 fours, the innings quickly subsided to 342 all out. Steve Kirby (4 for 77), the experienced Lancashire born paceman, was the pick of the visiting bowlers and he was well supported by the latest of the Nottingham based Saxelby family to make his mark, 20 year old Ian, who finished with 3 for 58.
Tim Murtagh soon got amongst the Gloucestershire batters, the visitors slumped to 28 for 3 and it was really only Chris Taylor (who nine years earlier had become the first player ever to score a hundred at Lord's in a Championship match on his first class debut) who held the Gloucestershire batting together. Taylor finally fell to a great catch by Steve Finn off Murali Kartik for a fine 65 off 112 balls with 13 fours. One-cap wonder Jon Lewis, batting at 10, was the second highest scorer (20*) as the tail managed to nudge the total up from 149 for 8 to 210 all out.
Murtagh finished with 4 for 61 and Kartik 3 for 44. Sam Robson had broken his arm in the field, but it was still a surprise to see that Compton's opening partner in the Middlesex second innings was Kartik, but Murali can bat as he demonstrated here and the pair had put on a quick 84 off 23 overs by lunch on day 3 as Middlesex tried to compensate for time lost to rain. Eventually, the partnership was worth 128 when Kartik fell for 57 off 105 balls with 8 fours, but he had also suffered a bad left arm injury from a fierce delivery from Kirby and was able to bowl only one over in the Gloucestershire second innings.
Compton went on to 83 (off 131 balls with 9 fours) and Dexter had contributed a useful 39* when the declaration came at 273 for 7, setting Gloucestershire an unlikely 406 to win. The win looked even more unlikely as the visitors suffered their second top order collapse of the match and declined to 21 for 3, with Murtagh again involved. Opener Kadeer Ali, brother of Worcestershire's Moeen, was defending stoutly and Taylor gave him some assistance in a stand of 52 for the fourth wicket, but when Kadeer became Gareth Berg's first victim (for 48 off 111 balls with 6 fours), the remainder of the Gloucestershire innings was dominated by Kiwi Test allrounder James Franklin. Ex-England off-spinner Richard Dawson (35) helped to add 78 for the seventh wicket, but apart from that, there was no support whatsoever for Franklin as he hit a terrific 80* off 112 balls with 10 fours and a six, but it came in a losing cause as Gloucestershire were all out for 225 and Middlesex had won by 180 runs.
Murtagh took 3 for 83, but this time the Middlesex bowling hero was Berg who finished with a career best 5 for 55. Ben Scott picked up four catches behind the wicket and while Middlesex used four spinners, none of them took a second innings wicket. Middlesex 20 points Gloucs 4: it was Middlesex's second and last win of the season (both of them in August). This win coupled with Murtagh and Dave Burton hanging on for a draw against Derbyshire at Uxbridge on September 18 and Leicestershire's failure to pick up any more than 3 points from their final match at Northampton on September 25th, Middlesex were able to finish one place off the bottom and avoided a first ever wooden spoon by 2 points.
Phil Hughes and Andrew Strauss were the top two in the Middlesex batting averages in 2009, but they only played in three matches each. Owais Shah played in eight matches scoring 591 runs at 42.21, then came Dexter (709 at 41.7), Malan (top scorer with 930 at 37.2), Robson (441 at 33.92), Compton (860 at 33.07) and Berg (668 at 31.8), but there were some rather ordinary figures lower down the list. Kartik was top of the bowling averages with 33 wickets at 22.87, followed by Murtagh (60 at 25.35), Udal (37 at 27.21) and Finn (53 at 30.64). Scott collected 20 victims while the other leading catchers were Malan 19, David Nash 16 and Dexter 15. There was a long list of departures from the staff at the end of the season and of these Alan Richardson (Worcestershire) and Kartik (Somerset) both did very well in 2010, while a third, Compton (also Somerset) had a moderate 2010, but started to excel from 2011 onwards. Middlesex did not improve much in 2010 (despite recruiting the likes of Pedro Collins, Scott Newman, Iain O'Brien and Tom Smith), again finishing eighth in Division Two, though the margin by which they avoided the wooden spoon was not as narrow as in 2009: progress!
Test Triple Centurions
Kumar Sangakkara and Brendan McCullum have both joined the exclusive test triple centurions club. Members who are still playing include Jayawardene, Michael Clarke, Chris Gayle and Virendar Sehwag. It is interesting that many notable recent players are not members including KP, Ricky Pontin, Sachin Tendulka, Jacques Kallis, Graeme Smith and Alistair Cook. In his second innings Sangakkara scored another hundred and I believe the last batsman to do that was Graham Gooch.
Roger Kingdon
Steve Thompson sent me this
I scored my first century with Roger's bat. Well, strictly speaking it was the last ten runs from ninety to a hundred but the hundredth was most definitely with his bat; mine had just cracked through the toe end and sounded like the proverbial banjo. It was 1970, I was 15 and in the fourth year and Roger had brought R.F. Kingdon's XI to play the school in Cricket Week. Not only did he lend me his bat but he bowled the ball from which that cherished first hundredth run was garnered. Despite almost a four year age difference we had quite a lot in common. Neither of us could be described as natural athletes. Our formative cricketing years were under the guidance, both on and off the field, of Russ Collins and we were, in our respective final three years, both destined to shoulder the responsibility of scoring runs for the school. However, I didn't really appreciate the latter point when I opened the innings against R. F. Kingdon's XI. Roger did.
I must have had to have worked reasonably hard for the first ninety runs but as cramp set into my undeveloped left forearm and now with a strange, heavier bat in my hands I remember thinking I would no longer be able to hit it off the cut strip let alone the square. Roger however knew the immediate and longer term significance of this particular batting rite of passage for me and fed me the next ten runs through a sparsely populated leg side field. He was only nineteen himself but having played with him in the first XI the year before (his last year) he always seemed and indeed played like a seasoned pro.
A few years later of course we were to play against each other on numerous occasions and I saw again that wonderful batting method at close hand. An athlete, as described by the honed and bulked-up modern club player, he may not have been but he was so economic and certain in his foot movements that his idiosyncratic strokeplay was immediately identifiable and so memorable.
I remember three shots in particular: the punchy push wide of mid on with a power which belied the effort in the hands; the late cut, full of right hand and a slapped drive. The latter, played against both the quicks and the spinners, relied on very little back-lift but required impeccable timing. It was often played from well outside his crease as he would chassis towards the ball's pitch in a manner all of his own. If you ever saw him come down the wicket once you will have that picture in your mind's eye. No one would chassis like Roger. I always thought he was one of the most elegant of players. Perhaps not Peter May or David Gower elegant but elegant nevertheless.
He was also an underrated off-spinner. I remember how he would rub the inside of his right elbow twice or three times on his right hand side before taking his economic journey to the crease.
I also fondly remember how he would use the flattened back of his left hand or, more often, a rolled up copy of the Racing Post to demonstrate a forward push to an audience.
That before he reached thirty, Roger, club cricket and Brentham in particular should have lost his huge talent in such a cruel manner will always be one of the saddest aspects of the club circuit in the late 70s and early 80s.
The increased confidence I gained from scoring those additional ten runs was wholly disproportionate to the manner in which they came and had he not had the generosity, foresight and sense of occasion to have manufactured the situation I may have waited a great deal longer. Thank you Roger.
Charlie Puckett sent me this
Roger and I were on the 1979 Club Cricket Conference Tour to Australasia and the Aussie part finished in Perth with a match against the Old Collegians at Claremont-Cottesloe. Roger was one of the players who wasn't playing and several of them decided to go to Swanbourne Beach on the other side of the road for a bit of sunbathing.
Now, the important thing to know about Swanbourne is that it was a nudist beach and us English folk didn't tend to see those places in those days. Roger lay down in all his glory and hadn't been there long when two very attractive young ladies came and lay down near to him. Within a very short time Roger decided it would be politic to lie on his stomach rather than his back! And there he stayed, the Australian sun hammering down on his body while two lovely young sun seekers topped up their tans!
Obviously despite the tremendous team spirit which had been built up over the previous 5 weeks, Roger did not feel he could ask his team mates to slap some Factor 500 over him, nor could he ask the girls so a bum which had not seen the sun since the holiday paddles in Brighton at the age of one got the full treatment.
After a while the girls got up and Roger felt it safe to move. The Brentham bum was by now glowing in the dark! But the story did not finish there. The following day we were due to fly to Hong Kong via Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta. The Cathay Pacific 747 we were scheduled to travel on was taken out of service and 110 of us were transferred to a 707. I was seated near Roger and the arguments which followed as he pleaded to be allowed to stand all the way including the take-offs and landings was hilarious.
All of this is hearsay because I was involved in the match - not that I would have been on the beach in any event; it may be a marketing truism that it pays to advertise but I've always been of the view that you have to have a marketable product!
Roger was a great tourist, a tremendous friend and always good company - even if he did support Surrey - and he will be sadly missed by everybody. The saddest thing over the passing 33 years since his illness is that generations of young cricketers have grown up for who Roger was just a fat crippled bloke with a walking stick; they never got to see what a very fine player he was.
Steve Wright added
The Bush have started going to Paris in December for lunch. Rather a nice day out that Roy Cutler organises. I have been on two of these. The first one I spent most of the day helping Russell Collins around and last December I did the same for Roger. I don't think anybody will want to sit next to me this year.
Matthews Matters
Jon Matthews sent me this
I went to Sydney for the 5th Test (...and could only get advanced tickets for the 4th day!...); fortunately I went along ticketless on the 1st day just before lunch and, lo and behold, bumped into an Australian coming out of the ground who gave me his ticket. Australia did have 4 wickets down at the time.
I also went to the Sydney ODI (with a ticket) and succeeded in taking a very very rare photo on my mobile phone (definitely a collectors’ item!) – see attached. At the time the temperature in Melbourne and Adelaide was 44 ̊C; Sydney was a whole lot cooler – at 34 ̊C! Caught on camera is Alaistair Cook hooking Coulter-Nile for 6 in the 4th over of the game!
Old Danes
The Old Danes Gathering on Friday July 25 has attracted an unexpectedly favourable response and I will circulating lists separately. Please let me know if you plan to come, it may encourage others to make the effort.
Jim Purser died in February, aged 94. There will be a Remembrance Service at 2 pm on Thursday 6th March in St Paul 's Church, Kingston Hill.
George’s Quiz
My brother has launched another of his occasional quizzes
“You have to guess England’s batting order 1-8 for the 1st Test on the 12th June at Lords. The rules are simple:
You get a point for each player correctly named
You get a point for each player named in the right position in the batting order
So 16 points maximum
Entries to me ([email protected]) before the end of February.”
George has not stated whether there will be any prizes nor why there is such an early closure date. If you want to chance a late entry it’s up to you.
Football Matters
I get regular mail questioning what sort of people Ken Molloy and Kelvin West are. I try hard to reassure these correspondents that they are highly professional agents who take their scouting duties for Andrew Baker’s Ladies Team seriously. I hope that this photo sent to me recently by Ken will further allay their fears:
Googlies and Chinamen
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An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 135
March 2014
It’s time to talk about Kevin
The Professor goes first
We haven't (of late) talked much about Kevin; so I thought I might offer some thoughts. Since his first selection for England, Pietersen has, as they say, split opinions. I think there might be three opinions: Those who simply don't like him. Those who pragmatically think he should be in the team, like him or not, because he is so good,..and those who just think he should be in the team.
I am always bemused by people who say of some celebrity or politician that they "don't like them" having not, of course, met them and thus have formed an impression of someone via the TV which they would recognise as illegitimate in many other circumstances. The prejudice is inevitably dressed up with "objective" criteria (prejudiced...moi?) such as that KP is: "foreign", "arrogant", "brash", and so on...all attributes that should be more than sufficient to ban anyone from the national side. For these folk Pietersen's failures are jumped on and his successes ignored...'twas ever thus.
The second group are KP fans as long as he is doing well. Any failure brings the prejudices to the fore: he is not really a team man; gets out when the team needed him to stay in; is only after money (unlike so many in our society); is arrogant and, of course, foreign.
I'm in the last group. I have seen Pietersen bat for England in many parts of the world and what I have seen has, at times, been breathtaking. He is qualified to play for England and makes the side...so what is the problem?
The problem is that he is KP: brash, arrogant, selfish, etc. He may be all of these things, although personally I think the "arrogant" tag is a complete misreading - truly self-confident people do not need the approval of others - but these are problems for the numerous management staff to address and overcome. What else are they for? Doubtless he can be extremely difficult and many sports "stars" have been in the past. So? Deal with it...that's your job. Many people introduce the club cricket analogy at this stage - a happy dressing room, all behind the skipper, etc. Of course those things are important, but the object of the exercise is to win cricket matches not to have a happy team - many successful sides have contained people who didn't get on. People often don't...is this news?
There is, however, one trait which I think is essential to a team game, and that is loyalty. It is almost tautological to say that if you are playing for one team you cannot be aiding the opposition. For that reason alone, Pietersen should have been sacked during the South African series...permanently.
But, unsurprisingly, the ECB vacillated...and now we have this latest (last?) farcical chapter. The members of the above groups will now feel vindicated: "'e was foreign and a big 'ead" or bemused: he is sacked not dropped, so cricket isn't the issue here, so...? So what is? And should he have been? Well we don't of course have anything like the full story to be able to make a judgement (apart from the pre-judgers of course: "'e was flash, poncy...and foreign"). But I think there is something interesting going on here which cricket (that is international cricket, especially in England) has to grasp ...and that is the role of the coach.
For roughly three centuries the person in charge of a cricket team has been the captain. He (in general) chooses who plays, where they bat, when they bowl, and so on. Many sides have had coaches but these folk helped with your off-drive or your run-up. We now have, in effect, a change of governance at the highest level and there is an (unwitting) struggle going on to delineate the role of captain and coach (as exemplified, in part, by the uncertainty even of the title: coach, manager, director, etc). There is no such difficulty in other sports. The coach, whatever the title, is in charge and it is they who get the sack if things go wrong. No one would suggest that if England have a bad World Cup, Gerrard (or whoever happens to be captain at the time) should have his contract terminated: he may well not even be dropped. It will be the coach's "fault". Ditto rugby, baseball, American football, and on and on. Now I don't need to be told that cricket is "different" (if it weren't, there would be no point in the discussion): it takes five days, involves thousands of on-field decisions, is more cerebral than almost any sport and thus requires someone to do the (often split-second) thinking, and so on.
But the coaches (in the modern sense) are, I think, here to stay. If cricket adapts to the model of other sports it will be the coaches who do the selecting, decide the batting order and who generally play a much more intrusive role than they do at present (which already may be too intrusive for some). That means that when the team loses, it is his responsibility and his job on the line.
I think cricket has in part gone that way and more so in other parts of the world, but I think in England some are going to struggle with the implications.
It means, of course, that Pietersen should not have been sacked at this time. The decision removes the option for the incoming coach of selecting his best player (or not if that is what he might choose). Of course it may be that the new coach has been informally appointed and that he, Giles, was party to the decision. If not, it is a bizarre time to act. The announcement of the sacking and the drip-feed news management by innuendo is, of course, par for the ECB course.
The Great Jack Morgan sent me this
I became a fan of K Pietersen much earlier than most when he demolished the Middlesex attack at Lord's before anyone had heard of him. In May 2001, KP hit his maiden first class century, 165* off 218 balls with 22 fours and 2 sixes and in the second innings 65* off 47 balls with 4 fours and 4 sixes; he also held 3 catches and took the wicket of AJ Strauss for second innings figures of 12-7-13-1. Partly as a result of this, I have fully supported him in his England career and have tended to brush aside questions about his loyalty and his disruptive tendencies (why would he be disloyal and disruptive when he is constructing such a successful England career?), but over the years he has fallen out with the likes of Natal, Jason Gallian, Notts, Peter Moores, Hants, Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower and it does not sound like Cooky and Gilo defended him very strongly either. I have therefore come to the conclusion that Downton is correct and that the time is right for KP to pursue his own plans and let England get on without his influence. They will miss his runs, but perhaps not much else. It must be a comfort for him that he is getting support from Piers Morgan (no relation).
I noted
Whilst team spirit is highly desirable in any team game I am increasingly wondering how big a priority it can have in professional sport. When career and lucrative livelihood depend on personal performance how motivated is the professional to do things in the team's good as a priority? It may be easier with central contracts but ultimately they will be judged on individual performance. Therefore, the professional player has to be somewhat selfish. I suppose that Sir Geoffrey is the ultimate example but apart from the famous dropping after he scored a slow double century against India he was tolerated because he was good enough.
I find myself surprisingly sympathetic to the KP cause although it may be that his behaviour falls outside the team spirit arena. It will seem ridiculous in hindsight that he is not playing international cricket. Perhaps he should change countries? Why doesn't he fast track becoming Irish or Zimbabwaen? He would certainly get a mouthful back if he started spouting off in the Irish dressing room.
His new Surrey role seems to be based on Friday night Bashes. When did he last play a T20? Are we sure he won't have more pressing commitments on a Friday night?
And the final word came from Charlie Puckett
At about the same time the ECB made their long-overdue announcement on February 4th, I am sure I heard the sound of ghostly laughter: the only question is whether the noise came from over my head or under my feet!
Matters of the Hart
Steve Thompson further clarifies the dilemma posed by Bill Hart
What a good thing it was that in delving into the South Hampstead 2nd XI score sheets from 1974 Bill Hart unearthed a 'mystery' spinner. Ironically many of the 'brave phalanx' referred to in Bill's February contribution may be more familiar with A. Williams than the South Hampstead segment from whom further information was sought.
There were of course three left armers of note in the South Hampstead first team in 1974; Cox, Hardie and Thompson. Inexplicably the latter was rarely called upon possibly because in off-spinner Steve Hatherall there was a different option - or maybe he was just a million times better? That the side went on to win both the Middlesex League and Cup that season was largely down to its ability to take ten wickets and, depending on the surface, Cox, Hardie or Hatherall, separately or jointly had all that was necessary to finish off most opposition batting.
What then of poor old A. Williams toiling away with the stiffs? Tony and I discussed Bill's research earlier this week and concluded that first team success, and the spinners' performances to that end, rendered his elevation most unlikely. He couldn't recall being overly aware of being so close to taking a hundred wickets but I suspect even if he had taken two hundred he would have remained in the seconds. So, for Bill's sake, and for the record, what did happen to A.(more properly G.A.) Williams and why, after such a successful season did he not play for the club in 1975? Was it the arrival of left arm spinner, New Zealander Cliff Dickeson who would later break all wicket-taking records for Northern Districts that finally meant A. Williams saw no future for another left armer at South Hampstead?
No. The following two years saw Tony working in South Africa and when he returned he began his career at Brentham. In 275 League matches he took 515 wickets; just Brian Reid with 542 has taken more. This is all the more impressive when one considers he played half these matches at home on a generally slow, low wicket not renowned for being spinner-friendly. We also thought that along with Brian and Peter Ray he was one of only three bowlers to take more than 500 League wickets. No doubt one of the phalanx can confirm or deny this fact. Had he not played the last few years of his career at Dunstable, Tony would doubtless have eclipsed Brian's aggregate. For good measure, at the age of 40, he took 7 for 43 from 17 overs for the League Representative XI against Mike Gatting's 1987 Middlesex side.
Tony therefore only played that one full League season at Milverton Road. It was a brief glimpse into the future but unfortunately for South Hampstead not one they would share. Fair to say though that between 1974 and 1976 in Cox, Hardie, Dickeson and the mysterious A. Williams the club fielded four of the very best left-arm spinners to have played in the Middlesex League.
Steve Wright added
Good old Bill! I am sure I write on behalf of all Googlies readers when I say how pleased I was to read that Bill Hart has found such a fulfilling way to occupy his declining years. Carrying out such a forensically demanding exercise as the analysis of the South Hampstead 2nd X1 scorebook for 1974 will prove to be the highlight of his life and one that I am sure will be recognised in the next Honours List.
The unfortunate Mr A Williams who Bill has already established was a star in that famous side but who never made the first eleven reminds me of when Adam Gilchrist came over as a young man and played for Richmond. Despite some stellar performances the second eleven captain managed to keep Gilchrist in his side for several weeks claiming that he needed "another week" to acclimatise to English conditions. There is of course no truth in the rumour that has been circulating that Bill Hart whose career was, in 1974 in terminal decline managed to keep poor Williams from swapping sides with him because he was on the selection committee.
Really irritating trends in modern cricket
Not for the first time Douglas Miller disagreed with me
May I offer No 2 in the series ‘Really Irritating Trends in Modern Cricket’? It is old codgers preferring to see wrong umpiring decisions going uncorrected when there is the technology to put matters right. Is there a sadder sight, our Googlies editor asks, than an umpire having to reverse a decision that he has made following a successful referral? Yes, there is. It is the sight of a batsman dismissed when he should not have been given out. Or a bowler wrongfully denied a wicket. Why? For one thing the game is about the players, not the umpires. Moreover, ask an ICC Elite panel umpire and the odds are that he will say how glad he is to have the chance for mistakes he may have made to be corrected.
Frank Chester, of course, famously claimed never to have had any doubts. He was clearly a product of his age, ridiculously self-deluding. Then we had Dickie Bird, like so many umpires of his and earlier generations, making it to the top on a reputation as an unfailing not outer.
Anyone who umpires on a regular basis, and I do, will know that he makes mistakes. Some he will know he has made (from on-field reaction, not necessarily dissent), some he may remain blissfully unaware of, while with others he will be left wondering. It has always been so, and at club level thus it remains. But when it comes to the world’s top umpires, who are mostly very good, we are looking at well-paid people at the peak of their trade. It is right that we should be monitoring them to ensure that they remain the best; there are plenty of other aspirants in the wings. Now, armed with modern technology, we have the means of checking out their decision-making. So what is so appalling about showing how well top umpires have performed? After all plenty of other people in other walks of life, not least international cricketers, have their performances publicly evaluated.
Giving players the right to appeal against umpires’ decisions is an essential part of the process, and it is a price worth paying to ensure that those decisions are not allowed to have an unfair impact on the outcome of a match. Harking back to the practices of an age when the game that had no recourse to Hawkeye etc. serves no useful purpose.
Middlesex Matters
The Great Jack Morgan shares another report from his archive
Middlesex were approaching the end of a dismal season when Shaun Udal won the toss and chose to bat in the Second Division Championship match against Gloucestershire at Lord's on August 27 2009. Sam Robson and Nick Compton got the lads off to a good start with an opening stand of 46, then Adam London, on his first class debut, joined Robson (both of them aged 20) in an even better partnership of 96 for the second wicket before Robson fell for an excellent 83 off 171 balls with 11 fours. Dawid Malan (38) then partnered London in another good stand of 84 for the third wicket, but London departed for a very solid 68 off 173 balls with 8 fours and a six and suddenly 226 for 2 became 263 for 6.
Neil Dexter was batting well, however and when he was joined by his captain Udal, a pleasant stand of 58 for the seventh wicket ensued. Dexter departed for 51 off 79 balls with 11 fours and when Udal followed for an entertaining 45 off 55 balls with 9 fours, the innings quickly subsided to 342 all out. Steve Kirby (4 for 77), the experienced Lancashire born paceman, was the pick of the visiting bowlers and he was well supported by the latest of the Nottingham based Saxelby family to make his mark, 20 year old Ian, who finished with 3 for 58.
Tim Murtagh soon got amongst the Gloucestershire batters, the visitors slumped to 28 for 3 and it was really only Chris Taylor (who nine years earlier had become the first player ever to score a hundred at Lord's in a Championship match on his first class debut) who held the Gloucestershire batting together. Taylor finally fell to a great catch by Steve Finn off Murali Kartik for a fine 65 off 112 balls with 13 fours. One-cap wonder Jon Lewis, batting at 10, was the second highest scorer (20*) as the tail managed to nudge the total up from 149 for 8 to 210 all out.
Murtagh finished with 4 for 61 and Kartik 3 for 44. Sam Robson had broken his arm in the field, but it was still a surprise to see that Compton's opening partner in the Middlesex second innings was Kartik, but Murali can bat as he demonstrated here and the pair had put on a quick 84 off 23 overs by lunch on day 3 as Middlesex tried to compensate for time lost to rain. Eventually, the partnership was worth 128 when Kartik fell for 57 off 105 balls with 8 fours, but he had also suffered a bad left arm injury from a fierce delivery from Kirby and was able to bowl only one over in the Gloucestershire second innings.
Compton went on to 83 (off 131 balls with 9 fours) and Dexter had contributed a useful 39* when the declaration came at 273 for 7, setting Gloucestershire an unlikely 406 to win. The win looked even more unlikely as the visitors suffered their second top order collapse of the match and declined to 21 for 3, with Murtagh again involved. Opener Kadeer Ali, brother of Worcestershire's Moeen, was defending stoutly and Taylor gave him some assistance in a stand of 52 for the fourth wicket, but when Kadeer became Gareth Berg's first victim (for 48 off 111 balls with 6 fours), the remainder of the Gloucestershire innings was dominated by Kiwi Test allrounder James Franklin. Ex-England off-spinner Richard Dawson (35) helped to add 78 for the seventh wicket, but apart from that, there was no support whatsoever for Franklin as he hit a terrific 80* off 112 balls with 10 fours and a six, but it came in a losing cause as Gloucestershire were all out for 225 and Middlesex had won by 180 runs.
Murtagh took 3 for 83, but this time the Middlesex bowling hero was Berg who finished with a career best 5 for 55. Ben Scott picked up four catches behind the wicket and while Middlesex used four spinners, none of them took a second innings wicket. Middlesex 20 points Gloucs 4: it was Middlesex's second and last win of the season (both of them in August). This win coupled with Murtagh and Dave Burton hanging on for a draw against Derbyshire at Uxbridge on September 18 and Leicestershire's failure to pick up any more than 3 points from their final match at Northampton on September 25th, Middlesex were able to finish one place off the bottom and avoided a first ever wooden spoon by 2 points.
Phil Hughes and Andrew Strauss were the top two in the Middlesex batting averages in 2009, but they only played in three matches each. Owais Shah played in eight matches scoring 591 runs at 42.21, then came Dexter (709 at 41.7), Malan (top scorer with 930 at 37.2), Robson (441 at 33.92), Compton (860 at 33.07) and Berg (668 at 31.8), but there were some rather ordinary figures lower down the list. Kartik was top of the bowling averages with 33 wickets at 22.87, followed by Murtagh (60 at 25.35), Udal (37 at 27.21) and Finn (53 at 30.64). Scott collected 20 victims while the other leading catchers were Malan 19, David Nash 16 and Dexter 15. There was a long list of departures from the staff at the end of the season and of these Alan Richardson (Worcestershire) and Kartik (Somerset) both did very well in 2010, while a third, Compton (also Somerset) had a moderate 2010, but started to excel from 2011 onwards. Middlesex did not improve much in 2010 (despite recruiting the likes of Pedro Collins, Scott Newman, Iain O'Brien and Tom Smith), again finishing eighth in Division Two, though the margin by which they avoided the wooden spoon was not as narrow as in 2009: progress!
Test Triple Centurions
Kumar Sangakkara and Brendan McCullum have both joined the exclusive test triple centurions club. Members who are still playing include Jayawardene, Michael Clarke, Chris Gayle and Virendar Sehwag. It is interesting that many notable recent players are not members including KP, Ricky Pontin, Sachin Tendulka, Jacques Kallis, Graeme Smith and Alistair Cook. In his second innings Sangakkara scored another hundred and I believe the last batsman to do that was Graham Gooch.
Roger Kingdon
Steve Thompson sent me this
I scored my first century with Roger's bat. Well, strictly speaking it was the last ten runs from ninety to a hundred but the hundredth was most definitely with his bat; mine had just cracked through the toe end and sounded like the proverbial banjo. It was 1970, I was 15 and in the fourth year and Roger had brought R.F. Kingdon's XI to play the school in Cricket Week. Not only did he lend me his bat but he bowled the ball from which that cherished first hundredth run was garnered. Despite almost a four year age difference we had quite a lot in common. Neither of us could be described as natural athletes. Our formative cricketing years were under the guidance, both on and off the field, of Russ Collins and we were, in our respective final three years, both destined to shoulder the responsibility of scoring runs for the school. However, I didn't really appreciate the latter point when I opened the innings against R. F. Kingdon's XI. Roger did.
I must have had to have worked reasonably hard for the first ninety runs but as cramp set into my undeveloped left forearm and now with a strange, heavier bat in my hands I remember thinking I would no longer be able to hit it off the cut strip let alone the square. Roger however knew the immediate and longer term significance of this particular batting rite of passage for me and fed me the next ten runs through a sparsely populated leg side field. He was only nineteen himself but having played with him in the first XI the year before (his last year) he always seemed and indeed played like a seasoned pro.
A few years later of course we were to play against each other on numerous occasions and I saw again that wonderful batting method at close hand. An athlete, as described by the honed and bulked-up modern club player, he may not have been but he was so economic and certain in his foot movements that his idiosyncratic strokeplay was immediately identifiable and so memorable.
I remember three shots in particular: the punchy push wide of mid on with a power which belied the effort in the hands; the late cut, full of right hand and a slapped drive. The latter, played against both the quicks and the spinners, relied on very little back-lift but required impeccable timing. It was often played from well outside his crease as he would chassis towards the ball's pitch in a manner all of his own. If you ever saw him come down the wicket once you will have that picture in your mind's eye. No one would chassis like Roger. I always thought he was one of the most elegant of players. Perhaps not Peter May or David Gower elegant but elegant nevertheless.
He was also an underrated off-spinner. I remember how he would rub the inside of his right elbow twice or three times on his right hand side before taking his economic journey to the crease.
I also fondly remember how he would use the flattened back of his left hand or, more often, a rolled up copy of the Racing Post to demonstrate a forward push to an audience.
That before he reached thirty, Roger, club cricket and Brentham in particular should have lost his huge talent in such a cruel manner will always be one of the saddest aspects of the club circuit in the late 70s and early 80s.
The increased confidence I gained from scoring those additional ten runs was wholly disproportionate to the manner in which they came and had he not had the generosity, foresight and sense of occasion to have manufactured the situation I may have waited a great deal longer. Thank you Roger.
Charlie Puckett sent me this
Roger and I were on the 1979 Club Cricket Conference Tour to Australasia and the Aussie part finished in Perth with a match against the Old Collegians at Claremont-Cottesloe. Roger was one of the players who wasn't playing and several of them decided to go to Swanbourne Beach on the other side of the road for a bit of sunbathing.
Now, the important thing to know about Swanbourne is that it was a nudist beach and us English folk didn't tend to see those places in those days. Roger lay down in all his glory and hadn't been there long when two very attractive young ladies came and lay down near to him. Within a very short time Roger decided it would be politic to lie on his stomach rather than his back! And there he stayed, the Australian sun hammering down on his body while two lovely young sun seekers topped up their tans!
Obviously despite the tremendous team spirit which had been built up over the previous 5 weeks, Roger did not feel he could ask his team mates to slap some Factor 500 over him, nor could he ask the girls so a bum which had not seen the sun since the holiday paddles in Brighton at the age of one got the full treatment.
After a while the girls got up and Roger felt it safe to move. The Brentham bum was by now glowing in the dark! But the story did not finish there. The following day we were due to fly to Hong Kong via Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta. The Cathay Pacific 747 we were scheduled to travel on was taken out of service and 110 of us were transferred to a 707. I was seated near Roger and the arguments which followed as he pleaded to be allowed to stand all the way including the take-offs and landings was hilarious.
All of this is hearsay because I was involved in the match - not that I would have been on the beach in any event; it may be a marketing truism that it pays to advertise but I've always been of the view that you have to have a marketable product!
Roger was a great tourist, a tremendous friend and always good company - even if he did support Surrey - and he will be sadly missed by everybody. The saddest thing over the passing 33 years since his illness is that generations of young cricketers have grown up for who Roger was just a fat crippled bloke with a walking stick; they never got to see what a very fine player he was.
Steve Wright added
The Bush have started going to Paris in December for lunch. Rather a nice day out that Roy Cutler organises. I have been on two of these. The first one I spent most of the day helping Russell Collins around and last December I did the same for Roger. I don't think anybody will want to sit next to me this year.
Matthews Matters
Jon Matthews sent me this
I went to Sydney for the 5th Test (...and could only get advanced tickets for the 4th day!...); fortunately I went along ticketless on the 1st day just before lunch and, lo and behold, bumped into an Australian coming out of the ground who gave me his ticket. Australia did have 4 wickets down at the time.
I also went to the Sydney ODI (with a ticket) and succeeded in taking a very very rare photo on my mobile phone (definitely a collectors’ item!) – see attached. At the time the temperature in Melbourne and Adelaide was 44 ̊C; Sydney was a whole lot cooler – at 34 ̊C! Caught on camera is Alaistair Cook hooking Coulter-Nile for 6 in the 4th over of the game!
Old Danes
The Old Danes Gathering on Friday July 25 has attracted an unexpectedly favourable response and I will circulating lists separately. Please let me know if you plan to come, it may encourage others to make the effort.
Jim Purser died in February, aged 94. There will be a Remembrance Service at 2 pm on Thursday 6th March in St Paul 's Church, Kingston Hill.
George’s Quiz
My brother has launched another of his occasional quizzes
“You have to guess England’s batting order 1-8 for the 1st Test on the 12th June at Lords. The rules are simple:
You get a point for each player correctly named
You get a point for each player named in the right position in the batting order
So 16 points maximum
Entries to me ([email protected]) before the end of February.”
George has not stated whether there will be any prizes nor why there is such an early closure date. If you want to chance a late entry it’s up to you.
Football Matters
I get regular mail questioning what sort of people Ken Molloy and Kelvin West are. I try hard to reassure these correspondents that they are highly professional agents who take their scouting duties for Andrew Baker’s Ladies Team seriously. I hope that this photo sent to me recently by Ken will further allay their fears:
Googlies and Chinamen
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